The See-Through Pants Recall Is Costing Lululemon How Much??

Lululemon has been making headlines recently for a recall on too-sheer black yoga bottoms, but the see-through pants are no laughing matter. In fact, the recall cost the company up to $67 million in lost sales. Cue a low whistle.

The recalled pants accounted for about 17 percent of the company’s bottoms, WWD reports. On an earnings call with investors and analysts on Thursday, Lululemon’s chief executive officer Christine Day said that the unfortunate recall would potentially cut 2013’s first-quarter revenue by $12 million to $17 million, while the year’s lost revenue is projected to be between $45 million and $50 million.

By now, the damage has been done in terms of finances and public image. The problem could have stemmed from various factors like dye or knitting issues, and Lululemon’s execs and and manufacturers are careful about not putting the blame on anyone or anything in particular.

As for why the cheeky pants were given the green light to be sold in stores, Day explained:

“The truth of the matter is that the only way that you can actually test for the issue is to put the pants on and bend over. So, just putting the pants on themselves doesn’t solve the problem. Because it passed all of the basic metric tests and the hand feel is relatively the same. It was very difficult for the factories to isolate the issue and it wasn’t until we got into the store and started putting it on people that we could actually see the issue.”

So a brand that sells expensive athletic gear doesn’t think to do the bend test? Imagine about how much money the company could’ve, you know, not lost if they just made one of their execs do Downward Dog for a few seconds.